Everyone has a favorite desktop music player. For some of us, it's the one that just plays our music fast, with no fuss or hassle. For others it's a tool that organizes your playlists, syncs with your smartphone, makes your music collection easy to dig through, and looks good while doing it. This week we're going to… »9/22/13 8:00am 9/22/13 8:00am

Dear Lifehacker,I feel like every time I browse a music forum online, people are hating on iTunes. Is it just because it's fashionable to hate Apple, or is there actually something wrong with iTunes that I'm missing? It seems to work fine for me. »8/29/13 10:00am 8/29/13 10:00am

Whether it's built in or available through add-ons, most music players allow you to create smart playlists based on criteria you set. They can match specific genres, dates, and speeds, or use just about any other music data you can think of. We'd like to see yours. »5/23/13 12:30pm 5/23/13 12:30pm

The iPhone and iPad are great devices, but unfortunately, Apple heavily tethers them to iTunes, which can be slow, not to mention feature-poor compared to some of its competitors. Here's how to migrate your music to a new player and keep syncing your iOS devices without iTunes.»5/14/13 8:00am 5/14/13 8:00am

Android: MediaMonkey was one of your favorite music players, and now an early beta of the app is available for Android. It's packed with all of the features you would expect for a mobile music player, including audio and video support, podcast support, category navigation, a car-friendly UI, and more. It even… »12/06/12 10:30am 12/06/12 10:30am

Picking the best desktop music player is no easy task. What makes for the best in one user's mind is different than another's, mostly because feature-sets differ so much. Still, whether you need a music store attached to your player, a complete song tagging and organization engine, syncing with mobile devices, or… »8/28/12 2:15pm 8/28/12 2:15pm

The best desktop audio players organize your playlists, help you keep your massive music collection easy to search, and even sync with mobile players, among other things, but which ones excel in all of those areas? This week we're going to take a look at five of the best desktop audio players, based on your… »8/26/12 8:00am 8/26/12 8:00am

So you've spent a lot of time discovering and downloading new music, but your library's a mess. You're still using the same player you used 5 years ago, the files are in 10 different places on your hard drive, and your metadata looks like a tornado hit it. Take some time this weekend to clean up your library once and… »5/11/12 5:00pm 5/11/12 5:00pm

Syncing an iPhone with iTunes is about as seamless as it gets, while Android users are often left with a much clunkier experience—or at least having to figure out what desktop music player best fits their syncing needs. Here's how our favorite music players stack up against one another in Android-syncing prowess. »1/20/12 8:00am 1/20/12 8:00am

Whether you'd rather keep your Christmas music from cluttering up your library for half the year, or you need iPod-friendly tracks alongside your lossless ones, you can make your life easier by splitting your music into two separate libraries. Here's how. »11/17/10 9:00am 11/17/10 9:00am

Windows/Mac/Linux: Free application AutoLyrix automatically fetches and displays album artwork and lyrics for the currently playing track in your music player of choice. AutoLyrix is an open-source alternative to previously mentioned EvilLyrics, and like EvilLyrics, it not only downloads lyrics but also advances… »12/09/08 1:00pm 12/09/08 1:00pm

Windows only: The MiniLyrics plug-in automatically downloads and displays lyrics for the currently playing song for a handful of the most popular media players. With support for everything from iTunes and Windows Media Player to Winamp and MediaMonkey, MiniLyrics fetches lyrics and—when possible—plays them back… »8/07/08 4:00pm 8/07/08 4:00pm

Windows only: Freeware application CD Art Display shows your currently playing track's name, artist and album art in attractive floating skins, in addition to several other useful and completely customizable options. Like previously mentioned moreTunes, CD Art Display supports almost any player you might be using… »9/12/07 7:00pm 9/12/07 7:00pm